


kiss from the lips of a monster

by MaddieandChimney



Series: Tumblr Prompt Responses [5]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Gen, Mentions of Violence, Spoilers for Buck Begins, alternate universe where buck decides to go to the kendall house that night, mentions of injuries from domestic violence (non graphic)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:41:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29521029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieandChimney/pseuds/MaddieandChimney
Summary: Buck can't shake the feeling that something is wrong, finding himself sitting in his sister's jeep outside of the house she shares with her husband, that he's never been inside.There's something wrong..Or an alternate universe where Buck decides to go check on Maddie the night she decides to leave with him.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Maddie Buckley
Series: Tumblr Prompt Responses [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2129619
Comments: 23
Kudos: 122





	kiss from the lips of a monster

There’s a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach, one he can’t quite shift, no matter how much he tries to tell himself that everything will be okay. That Maddie will be okay; they’ll meet outside the hospital tomorrow and they’ll leave. Finally,  _ both _ of them will say goodbye to Hershey and to their lives there. He wasn’t happy, he wasn’t entirely certain he could remember a time when he had been happy with anyone other than Maddie. And he’d lost her to Doug ten years ago. 

But he knows his sister better than he knows anyone else and he  _ knows _ something is wrong. He can see it in her eyes, he can feel it in the way she flinches if he tries to reach for her. He’s practically grown up with Doug in his life and it still feels like he has absolutely no idea who the man is because he hasn’t shown an ounce of interest in getting to know him, as Maddie’s little brother. There’s something wrong, but he doesn’t know what. 

Evan gulps down the lump in his throat, biting down on his lip as he stares at the house his sister lived in for over a year whilst he’s never stepped inside. He can remember how excited he had been when she announced that her and her husband would be moving back to Hershey; she was barely twenty minutes away from the family home and still, he had barely seen her. She blamed work and then when he did try and drop by and knock the door, no one would answer, even if their cars were in the drive. 

Maddie had asked him to give her the night so she could grab some stuff, maybe leave a note for Doug and her boss. When he’d asked her to come with him, he had hoped she would say yes but he hadn’t expected her to actually say those words. The hope in her eyes and her smile had given him even more cause for concern because sure, marriage was complicated but the relief in her eyes hadn’t felt right. He can’t explain it but there’s an ache in his chest that he can’t ignore.  _ Something  _ is wrong with his sister. Something is wrong with Doug. Something beyond a complicated marriage and he feels like an idiot for even thinking about it because he’s twenty-one and has never been in a serious relationship, so what does he know, right? 

He takes a breath; he knows his sister and he knows himself and he can’t ignore it any longer. Not the pain in his chest, or the feeling of dread that pulsates through him or the screaming in his head that he needs to leave with her now. Not tomorrow. Right now. 

It’s been a few hours since he had dropped her off (at the end of her street, she’d insisted and he hadn’t asked why and now he wishes he had), too caught up in the excitement as he talked about how he was going to say goodbye to his friends. A simple acknowledgement that they would see each other the next day before her smile was gone and that look in her eyes returned that he couldn’t quite decipher and suddenly, the pain had been back. 

Something was wrong. 

“Fuck it.” He murmurs to himself, clambering out of the car - the worst that can happen if he’s wrong is that their marriage is just simply  _ complicated _ and he’s just her kid brother turning up to say hello. But Maddie is miserable and he’d noticed the brace on her wrist and the heavy make-up on her face and he doesn’t want to think that anyone is hurting her, not really, but if anyone is the expert on injuries, it’s him. 

The sound can’t be heard from the street, but as he nears the house, he can hear glass smashing and the screaming of a man he can only presume is Doug. A few more steps and he’s standing outside the door of the beautiful home his sister had moved into, that his parents had sneered at when they’d found out and it’s the soft cries of his sister that causes a different kind of darkness to rise with him. A rage he isn’t sure he’s ever felt before because this, for the first time in his life, isn’t aimed towards his parents for not loving him or for pushing away Maddie, the burning rage inside of him isn’t aimed towards himself. All he can think about is Doug and Maddie and it’s with that in mind that he rips his sling from his shoulder, more than ready to fight. 

He tries the door first, knowing that would have been too good to be true, until his fists come slamming down on the door and the noise inside stops. No more crying, no more screaming, there’s silence and for a moment, he thinks he’s going to go ignored. He takes a breath, eyeing up the plant pot and considering, for just a moment, throwing it through the window so he can get his hands on Doug. So he can see his sister and feel as though he can breathe again when he gets her the hell out of there. He had always hated Doug, he had always thought something wasn’t quite right but this… what he thinks is going on in there as all the pieces start to fit together in his mind… this is beyond anything he could have imagined. Beyond anything he hopes their parents could have imagined because surely…  _ surely _ they wouldn’t have abandoned their daughter if they knew or if they had any inkling.

The door is thrown up before he gets a chance and he realises, it’s the first time he’s seen Doug in over five years and he no longer feels small or intimidated by him. Now, he stands strong, meeting his eyeline, a stoic look on his face as he does his best to hide the anger when he glances down at his bloody hands. He’s never been one for impulse control but that’s usually only with his own safety in mind - now, he needs to get to Maddie. She’s the only person in the world who could anchor him, his glare settling on the man in front of him before he takes a deep, long breath. “I need to see my sister.”

“She’s not here.”

“I need to see my sister.” He repeats, trying to keep his voice strong, unwavering, his eyes not moving from Doug’s as he dares him to start a fight with someone his own size, someone who can fight back. It hurts to think of how this man, who was supposed to love and cherish his sister, had hurt her instead.  _ His  _ sister, who he had walked down the aisle into his arms, who stood at a foot less than the both of them and wouldn’t stand a chance in any attack. He wants to kill him, he wants to tear him apart limb by limb but instead, he stands there, one hand on the door, waiting. 

He’d wait all night if he had to. 

“Why don’t you just leave, Evan? I’ll even let you keep the jeep, for good measure.” It’s the tone of voice, the demeaning look in his eyes, alongside the smirk as though he knows something that he doesn’t and any impulse control he’d once had goes out of the window. He’s had fights before, mostly with people the same age as him, the kind of fights that were easy to forgive and to forget. To shake hands afterwards and laugh about it a few days later. This was different, the moment his fist connects with Doug’s face, it feels  _ good _ . It feels right and when he goes stumbling back with his hand over his nose, there’s a satisfaction there that he can’t describe. 

He’s expecting the punch back and he almost wants to laugh because it’s nothing compared to everything he has done to himself over the years in a bid to get his parents attention. The stinging sensation to his cheek, the blood he can taste in his mouth, it’s nothing. It barely scrapes the surface of a childhood lost in broken bones and hospital waiting rooms. He feels lost right then in a red mist, the kind that causes a scream to fall from his lips when he throws himself forward, lunging enough to send Doug flying against the nearest wall and he thinks, when he’s staring into the eyes of what he can only describe right then as pure evil because that’s what any person who would hurt his sister is, that he’ll never stop until he’s dead. 

Until, “Evan?” That voice can pull him out of his own head as if by magic, the voice of the one person who had comforted him, who had promised him so much. The voice of his big sister that sounds hurt and scared right then, and he hopes more than anything, that it’s not him she’s wary of before he turns to her. He keeps his grip tight on the collar of the man who has at least stopped fighting him, until his eyes settle on Maddie; looking smaller than ever as she leans against the doorway of the living room. The pain that pulsates through him is incomparable to anything he’s ever felt before, breathing it all in for a moment. He barely recognises her through the blood, the bruises and the swelling to her face. Her arm loosely wrapped around her waist and he’d always known Doug wasn’t good enough for her but this? This was… it felt beyond his remit. Beyond anything he could understand and, not for the first time in his life, he wants his parents. He wants them to tell him what to do, he wants to know what he’s supposed to do to make any of this better or easier for the one person in his life who had only ever wanted him to be happy. 

Evan just wishes right then, that she had wanted the same for herself. 

There’s a sudden fear of appearing violent in front of her, not wanting her to think he’s ever on the same level as the man who had… hurt her beyond recognition. But he knows there’s no way in hell he’s getting her out of here, there’s not a chance that Doug would just let him walk out with Maddie. “Call the police.” He finally manages to get out, desperate eyes searching hers until she’s looking at her husband, and not at him. 

He’s never wanted to kill anyone before, but the dripping anger in Doug’s voice when he speaks to the woman he claimed to love, causes that feeling to rise within him, “Don’t you dare, Maddie. Tell your brother to leave and I’ll forget this ever happened.” There’s a warning there, a promise or a threat that he’s not aware of, although he can imagine what it is when he sees the terror on her face. 

“No, okay? Don’t listen to him. I’ll protect you. I promise.” He remembers every time her little finger had linked over his, every determined promise she had uttered when she had looked him in the eyes and the best he can do right then is just to look at her and hope that she sees what he would do for her. Hope that she feels the honesty behind his words. There’s silence whilst Doug thinks he has won and Evan fears that he’s lost her before she stumbles backwards and shakes her head. 

“Just let me go.” For a moment, he thinks she’s talking to him, but her eyes are no longer staring at his, instead, her tear filled words are aimed at the man he’s holding onto tightly right then. “Please, just let me go.” 

It’s the calmness to his voice, the eerie “I told you how this ends,” that will haunt Evan for the years afterwards before, without much thought to himself, he slams his own head against Doug’s and takes the opportunity, just the moment of haze and surprise that’s overcome the older man to grab his sister’s hand and pull her from the hell she’s meant to call home. There’s only one thing he has in mind and it’s to get his sister as far away from her husband as he possibly can, even as she stumbles and gasps for air just behind him, even when her hand slightly pulls from his until only their pinkies are linked and he stops to stare at her.

“We have to go.” 

It’s the way her eyes dart from the house, and the way her entire body tenses up the moment her name is screamed, reverberating through the empty street, loud enough that the light of the house next door comes on a moment later. “Maddie, we have to go. We have to go now.” There’s an unbridled panic in his voice, dipping his head so to force her to meet his eyes, too afraid to touch her in case he hurts her, blood dripping down his own head before he gently tugs on her hand. “Maddie, please, please come with me.” 

As much as he sees Doug from where he’s standing, it’s as though Maddie  _ feels _ his presence, and for a second, she’s stopped breathing and Doug seems satisfied enough to slow his movements. As though he’s confident in the knowledge that Maddie isn’t going anywhere, “Where will we go?” She asks, her voice barely a whisper and Evan knows they have barely any time at all before her husband reaches them and they’re just a few steps away from the unlocked car. 

“It doesn’t matter, the point is to go, remember? But it has to be now, Maddie.” He makes no attempt to hide how terrified he is, or to hide the tears that fall down his cheeks, everything aching at the thought of letting her go back into that house. But it has to be her choice, he doesn’t know why or how he knows that but if he forces her to leave, it has to be for good because he’s going to kill her. Maybe not tonight, but one day. 

When she lets go of his finger, his heart drops, Doug confidently walking down the driveway towards them, rubbing his bloody head, clearly unsuspecting of Maddie’s next move, just as her brother is. But there’s hope, when she steps around him towards the car and he finds himself running towards the driver’s side, his hands shaking as he tries to focus on getting her away from there. It feels like an eternity, but it’s barely seconds; Doug’s hands slamming against her window, Maddie whimpering next to him before he starts the engine and slams his foot on the gas. Half of him wishing he could reverse into the screaming man, whilst the other half focuses on getting her away. 

“We’re never coming back here, Maddie.” He whispers, unable to bring himself to look at her and see the pain that Doug has left behind. “I promise.” Despite it all, he still can’t help the half cry-half laugh that falls from his lips when he sees her lifting her little finger from where she’s sitting, not taking his eyes off of the road ahead of him as he lifts his own and wraps it around hers. 

“You’re a good brother, Evan.” 

Finally, he dares himself to glance at her, gulping down the lump of vomit in his throat when a wave of nausea washes over him, knowing he has to get her to a hospital, soon. But not until they’re away from Hershey, away from everyone who had ever hurt them. “It’s going to be okay.” He says aloud, not sure if it’s aimed more to convince her or himself, before he stares ahead, “You’re going to be okay.” 


End file.
